


climax

by michpat6



Series: aftermath [15]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, and then something happens :), emotional whiplash from the last work because this is a huge 180, or love me who knows, they start having their ~discussion~, title says it all tbh, y'all are gonna hate me for this one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:20:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28651899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michpat6/pseuds/michpat6
Summary: The next day they’re sitting at the table, eating a beef stew for lunch, wearing new, finally-dry clothes, when Zelda pulls the trigger.“Link?”He swallows his food. “Yes?”She puts her spoon down and quietly asks, “Why won’t you pick up the Master Sword?”
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: aftermath [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2033743
Comments: 17
Kudos: 159





	climax

The next day they’re sitting at the table, eating a beef stew for lunch, wearing new, finally-dry clothes, when Zelda pulls the trigger.

“Link?”

He swallows his food. “Yes?”

She puts her spoon down and quietly asks, “Why won’t you pick up the Master Sword?”

He eats another spoonful of stew, trying to think of a lie. When he can’t, he responds, “What are you talking about?”

She stares at him. “The Master Sword has been on the floor since two nights ago. Why haven’t you picked it up?”

He puts his spoon down, too, tense in his seat as he stares at the table. “Why haven’t you?”

(His temper has been getting shorter these past two Bad Days, these past two Bad Days that he’s tried his best to hide. Every little thing seems to send him into a spiral of rage.)

“Link, I’m worried-”

“I’m fine.”

(Zelda bringing this up is a big thing.)

“Link-”

“Zelda-”

“You yelled at me for not letting you in. Do I really have to do the same to you?”

“I don’t see you letting me in at all,” he snaps.

(A _really_ big thing.)

“Because I don’t want to pile on all of my issues on top of the ones you’re already having,” she’s getting angry, now, that’s good. Maybe if he gets her angry enough she’ll storm off and they won’t have to have this conversation. “So I’m going to ask you again: Why won’t you pick up the Master Sword? What did it show you before I came back?”

_You’re the Hero, Hero, you tell me._

_Happy birthday._

Link glares at her, staying quiet.

(He wants answers, he wants to know what they were Before, but he can’t put her on the spot like this. He can’t force her to reveal something as important, something as _private_ , as her possibly-romantic relationships. Even if they involved him.)

“Fine,” Zelda turns in her seat and looks down at the Master Sword. “What did you show him?”

The Master Sword pulses-

“No!” he exclaims, shooting to his feet and knocking his chair over. He stares at the Master Sword with wide eyes, absolute fear in his veins. “Don’t!”

(Unless she does something like this.)

His hands shake and his heart pounds and he thinks he’s sweating. All he wants to do is curl in a ball and hide from the purple glow that peeks out from the edge of the scabbard.

Zelda looks at him, and her hard expression softens. “Please, Link. Whatever you’re remembering, maybe I can help you with it. Fill in the gaps.”

“That’s just it,” he whispers, voice trembling. “You can help me, but I don’t think you’ll want to.”

“Why not?”

_You’re the Hero, Hero, you tell me._

_Happy birthday._

“All it’s done is show me you,” he tells her. “You and my past lives. It’s trying to tell me something but I don’t know what, and every time I think I figure it out it shows me you again, and I get even more confused.”

“Why?” she turns back and faces him fully, straightening in her seat. “What about me are you seeing?”

He can’t see her hands but he knows she’s fiddling with them in her lap. It’s her nervous habit, her tell that tells him she probably knows what he’s about to say.

“I see…” Link swallows. “I see us walking through the halls of Hyrule Castle. You’re holding my hand, and I ask you a question but I don’t know what the question is, and then you stop and you pull me close and you say, ‘You’re the Hero, Hero, you tell me’. And then I don’t know what happens next.”

Nothing in her face changes. She asks, “What else?”

“Um-” he clears his throat. “I can’t…I don’t want to…”

It feels wrong to have to describe her in his lap, to have to describe how she said his name, to have to describe how she felt in his hands.

Instead, he asks her a question.

“What happened on your birthday?”

Zelda blinks. “We went to Mount Lanayru. I prayed at the Spring of Wisdom, and the Calamity struck. You already know what happened after-”

“What happened before all of that?”

She breathes a laugh. “Link, I don’t know what-”

Goddesses, he knows she knows what he’s talking about and her playing dumb isn’t going to make this any easier-

“What happened in your bedroom?”

Her face is carefully, carefully blank. “What did you see?”

“I saw-” _Enough to know I shouldn’t have seen it._ “I saw _us_ , Zelda. Not all of it, but…enough.”

She closes her eyes. Takes a deep breath. “And?”

“And what?”

“And what do you think?” she opens her eyes. “What are your feelings about that?”

“I feel…” _Confused. Happy. Angry. Sad. Hopelessly in love with you._ “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”

“What doesn’t matter?”

(Any of it. It’s not his business. He wasn’t the one sleeping with her.)

“Me,” Link answers. “You weren’t…You weren’t doing that with me.”

She laughs again, but there’s something in it, something that isn’t humor. He’s reminded of a storm before the first lightning strike, a dark, dangerous thing. “Yes I was.”

“No, you were doing that with _your_ Link, not me, who’s only purpose in life was to save you from the castle-”

Zelda recoils like she’s been slapped. “That is _not_ all you are, and to even suggest that I think of you as _mine_ like you’re some kind of slave-”

“But that’s the truth!” he raises his voice. “All I am is your soldier, the guy who woke up and killed the Calamity because you and your father’s ghost and Impa _told me to_ -"

“So that’s all _I_ am?” she matches his volume, joining him on her feet. “Some kind of obligation?”

(Yes.)

( _No_.)

“I don’t know!” he repeats. “It doesn’t matter!”

(He’s the Hero, and she’s the Goddess Incarnate. All they are is an obligation.)

(He’s Link, and she’s Zelda. They’re friends. They could be more than that.)

“It matters to me! What am I to you?”

(His temper has been getting shorter lately.)

“I don’t-!“

“ _Stop saying you don’t know and answer me!_ ” she shouts.

“ _I can’t_!” he shouts back.

“ _Why not?!_ ”

“ _Because I’m in love with you!_ ”

The world stops on a dime.

They stare at each other from across the table, chests heaving, their angry voices echoing off the walls, and all Link can think is, _Shit._

(Shit. Shit shit _shit_.)

This wasn’t supposed to go this way, either. This wasn’t supposed to ‘go’ at all.

But it is. It’s going, it’s _going_ , and he has to do something before it’s gone.

“I’m in love with you,” he repeats, almost snarling the words. He’s in love with her but he’s pissed and doesn’t she _get it_? “I am in love with you and I am the Hero and I don’t know if you want me to be the Link who saved you or the Link who died because you won’t _talk to me_. You push me away and you shut down and you _run_ and I’m not saying I’m any better, but I don’t know who I am and you are the only one who can tell me. Without you, I’m nothing.”

Zelda is staring at him the same way she stared at him in the Dueling Peaks Stable, the day he brought her Storm Junior. She’s searching his eyes with a strange, open expression on her face, her rage disappearing and being replaced by whatever emotion she’s currently feeling.

(He would kill to know what it is. He wonders if she even knows she’s expressing it.)

“Say something,” he says, softer, finally calming down. “Please.”

“You’re in love with me?” she whispers.

(Is that…Is that hope in her voice?)

“Yes,” Link whispers back, nodding. “I have been for a while.”

Zelda rounds the table and stands in front of him. She reaches up and takes his face between her hands, stroking her thumbs over his cheeks and staring into his eyes.

“You’re in love with me,” she repeats.

He nods again. “I don’t…I’m not expecting you to-”

She smiles, and says for a third time, “You’re in love with me.”

Link, confused, nods again. “Are you all-“

Zelda lifts onto her toes and kisses him.

**Author's Note:**

> you all deserved this ily 
> 
> also the ~talk~ is not done they just have more to discuss because in this house we stan communication


End file.
